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Digital governance and consumer rules
Two rule books changed in September 2026. Amended e-commerce rules will make a platform audit its own interface for dark patterns every year from January 2027, and show the price a product actually sold at before the discount. On the government's own side, the third phase of the land records programme puts every parcel on a map with a 14 digit identity number of its own.
Who regulates an online marketplace
- The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 govern how a platform may sell to an Indian consumer.
- The Central Consumer Protection Authority issued guidelines on dark patterns in 2023.
- Those guidelines name false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, subscription traps and drip pricing.
What the amended e-commerce rules require
Design
- Comply with the 2023 dark patterns guidelines
- Yearly self audit and certificate of compliance
Search
- No manipulation to mislead
- Clearly disclose sponsored listings
Prices
- Show the reduced and the prior price
- Prior price is the lowest in the previous 30 days
- No bundled fees for unrelated services
Imports and grievances
- Disclose importer and country of origin
- Join the National Consumer Helpline convergence process
The land records programme before 3.0
- It began in 2008 as the National Land Records Modernisation Programme, merging two Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
- In 2016 it was revamped as the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP), a Central Sector Scheme funded entirely by the Union.
What DILRMP 3.0 builds
Land Stack
- GIS enabled
- Links cadastral maps, Records of Rights, registrations and court cases
- State Land Stacks federate into a National Land Stack, with the data staying with the States
ULPIN (Unique Land Parcel Identification Number)
- Universal Bhu-Aadhaar
- A 14 digit ID for each land parcel
Registration
- Registration Seva Kendras, modelled on Passport Seva Kendras
NAKSHA (National Geospatial Knowledge-based Land Survey of Urban Habitations)
- Pilot for urban land records
- Urban Property Cards
What has happened
10 Sep 2026
The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 were amended, with the new obligations taking effect from 1 January 2027.
- The yearly self audit and certificate of compliance replace a regime in which a platform answered only when it was caught.
10 Sep 2026
Operational guidelines were launched for DILRMP 3.0, a Central Sector Scheme running from 2026 to 2031.
- It carries ₹565.50 crore for the digital overhaul of land records.